EGYPT IN THE WORLD OF ISLAM 69agreement and Damascus was once again obliterated and its people mur-
dered in the most horrendous manners. After eighty days of looting, mur-
der, and rape, Tamerlane left Damascus a pile of smoking ruins and
returned to Samarkand.
The Mamluk empire continued in its steady decline. A few military
successes ensued, such as the naval operations in 1426 that led to the
conquest of Cyprus, making it a tributary state. However, a similar ex-
pedition against Rhodes failed. The Black Sheep and White Sheep Turk-
men tribes in Persia would replace the Mongols as major sources of border
problems, but few major battles erupted. The disintegration of the Mam-
luks cost them many of these border clashes and the few pitched battles.
Egyptian frontiers in Syria were pushed back west. Eventually the growing
power of the Italian city-states and the Portuguese would drive the Mam-
luk navy from the seas and take Cyprus away from them as well.
A major problem arose when the Portuguese discovered how to sail
around the Cape of Good Hope and penetrate the Indian Ocean. They
would eventually drive the Mamluk southern fleet from the seas, destroy-
ing it in battle in February 1509. This naval dominance allowed the Eu-
ropeans to establish colonies in India that would give them control of the
spice trade. This utterly destroyed the finances of the Mamluk empire,
whose revenues depended heavily on the taxation of the overland traffic
in goods from the Far East.
Financially crippled, the sultans were no longer able to bribe the Royal
Mamluks, whose ranks were kept filled by the importation of more and
more slave boys to replenish the ranks. On August 23, 1514, fate began
knocking at the Mamluks’ doors. On that day the Ottomans, under Sultan
Selim, known as Selim the Grim for his brutality, defeated the Persians
in the Battle of Chaldiron. Sultan Selim then moved against the Mamluks
and engaged them in the Battle of Marj Dabig on August 24, 1515. The
cavalry-based Mamluk army faced a relatively modern Ottoman army
equipped with cannons and highly trained musket-armed infantry.
The Mamluks opened the battle with a headlong cavalry charge in fine
old medieval style, led by the commander-in-chief, Sudoon al Ajami, and
Emir Sibay, the viceroy of Damascus. The Ottoman left was overrun and
fled, abandoning seven colors and numerous guns to the Mamluks. It is
alleged that Selim was on the verge of flight when the Mamluk left, under
Khairbeg, viceroy of Aleppo, withdrew from the field for no apparent
reason. It later transpired that Khairbeg had betrayed the Mamluk cause
to the Ottomans.
Selim’s victorious army began an easy advance against now defenseless
Cairo, occupying it on January 26, 1517. The Mamluk empire was